ICYMI: Week of 1/6/17

Welcome to 2017’s first In Case You Missed It, a.k.a. ICYMI, our weekly blog roundup of the latest stories around the @fwd_mvt and #Episcopal world.

First off, Happy New Year! Here’s a prayer we shared on our Facebook on Twitter feeds for the year ahead. We hope you’ll join us in saying these words:

Many of us probably launched a New Year’s resolution (or several) this week… And perhaps right about now it’s already looking a little daunting. But that’s OK! In this week’s Forward Today, Scott Gunn wrote about new years and new beginnings, framing them in our Christian context:

“We get constant do-overs. All we’re asked to do is try. Try again and again. We can’t do this on our own, which is why we promise to do these things only with God’s help … The picture here shows a winding road. It’s like that with life, isn’t it? The path winds.”

On the subject of fresh starts, we were moved by this article on a New Year’s party for those in recovery—an example of how one church is helping ring in 2017 on a positive note.

For many, the new year also means a new role in a congregation. If you’ve just joined your church’s vestry, or are welcoming new members, this article on ECF’s January Vestry Papers has some great ideas for starting afresh with a strong foundation.

“Early on,” writes Nathan E. Kirkpatrick, “it is important that we talk about and demonstrate how these years of service can be a spiritually-enriching experience, how they can nurture (or refresh) a life of prayer, how they can awaken hope and confirm faith, how they can incline our hearts to love God and our neighbor in new and deeper ways.”

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